Vancouver City Council to vote on car-free Granville Strip revitalization plan | Daily Hive

Vancouver City Council to vote on ambitious car-free Granville Entertainment District revitalization plan

Preliminary conceptual concept of the transformation of Granville Street at the intersection with Smithe Street in downtown Vancouver, under the Granville Street Plan. (City of Vancouver)

After over two years of planning and consultation work, Vancouver City Council is poised to approve a bold new plan to transform downtown Vancouver’s Granville Street corridor into a vibrant, year-round cultural and entertainment destination.

A City of Vancouver staff report headed to City Council next Wednesday, June 4, 2025 recommends the adoption of the Granville Street Plan — a long-term blueprint aimed at revitalizing the struggling Granville Entertainment District (GED).

The plan is two-fold — introducing new building development possibilities that bring lively activity to the street throughout the day and night, and laying out a strategy for new and improved public spaces on a six-block segment of the street between West Georgia Street and Drake Street. It envisions a future with expanded live music venues, more patios and restaurants, new hotel developments, and a world-class pedestrian-friendly public realm.

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Most of Granville Street in downtown Vancouver will be reimagined through a phased approach over 20 years. Central to the plan are three major “key moves,” defining three character zones (City Centre, Entertainment Core, and Bridgehead); creating a new signature plaza at the intersection of Granville and Robson streets; and rerouting TransLink buses and other vehicles off Granville Street to enable a year-round, vehicle-free pedestrian zone.

City staff state the Granville Street Plan is needed to reverse growing issues in the area, including vacant storefronts, limited daytime activity, and public safety concerns. Once a celebrated nightlife hub known for neon-lit signage and traditional entertainment venues, the GED has struggled in recent decades, with its decline becoming particularly apparent in more recent years.

granville strip master plan vancouver february 2025

Proposed concept for the Granville Strip master plan, February 2025. (City of Vancouver)

The newly released Granville Street Plan is highly consistent with the draft concept released by City staff in February 2025 for public consultation.

Car-free Granville Street for pedestrians, with buses rerouted to Howe and Seymour streets

Currently, Granville Street in downtown Vancouver is a major public transit corridor, with over 1,100 TransLink buses carrying 21,000 passengers on a typical weekday.

Under the new plan, all bus traffic will be shifted to the adjacent parallel streets of Howe Street and Seymour Streets, which will receive upgrades to handle increased traffic volumes. This rerouting is considered key to enabling the pedestrianization of Granville Street and unlocking its potential as a dynamic public space.

Granville Street in the Entertainment Core sub-area; Preliminary concept of the Granville Strip master plan for illustrative purposes only, February 2025. (City of Vancouver)

Howe and Seymour streets will see “strong” bus priority measures, including permanent full-time bus priority lanes, as well as bus bulb sidewalk extensions at bus stops, traffic signal changes, parking restrictions, and turn restrictions. As well, the pedestrian sidewalks of these parallel streets will be upgraded to better handle the increased foot traffic.

There will initially be a temporary re-routing of buses onto Howe and Seymour streets for seasonal pedestrian zone pilot projects on Granville Street, before the changes become permanent to enable the car-free, pedestrian-only transformation of the entertainment district.

Over the long term, the full car-free, pedestrianization of Granville Street will be further extended north to West Cordova Street/Waterfront Street and south to the entrance of the bridge, reaching the new Granville Connector — the bridge’s new pedestrian and cycling pathways.

Screenshot

Vancouver’s version of Times Square and Piccadilly Circus

A new major public plaza is proposed for the prominent intersection of Granville Street and Robson Street, which also serves to provide an improved pedestrian link between Robson Square and the stadiums.

This landmark intersection will become a designated electronic video sign zone, with the City strongly encouraging the installation of large digital billboards on the facades of the buildings at the corners — akin to Times Square in New York City and Piccadilly Circus in London.

The video boards will feature not only advertising, but also visual art, live-event screenings, and dedicated airtime to the City for community uses.

This builds on the existing video boards at the intersection’s Best Buy/Marshalls building, which were first installed over two decades ago and were recently replaced with larger models.

798 granville street vancouver best buy marshalls f

The three-storey retail building at 798 Granville Street (on Robson Street), home to Best Buy and the future Marshalls store. (Kenneth Chan)

New high-density developments with hotels, entertainment, restaurants, and retail

The finalized plan for approval calls for strengthening the entertainment district by protecting and expanding live performance venues, enhancing public art, and supporting events and festivals within the new on-street public spaces.

Active daytime uses, such as restaurants and retail, including sidewalk and lower rooftop patios, will strongly be encouraged for the lower levels of the buildings, complementing nighttime activity.

More broadly, the City is aiming to attract major hotel developments and new office uses along the Granville Strip to support tourism, employment, and long-term economic revitalization. Hotels are viewed as a complement to an entertainment district and a key solution to Vancouver’s growing shortage of overnight accommodations options.

In areas outside the Entertainment Core — such as the City Centre between West Georgia and Robson streets and the Bridgehead between Davie and Drake streets (the northernmost and southernmost segments of the area plan, respectively) — new mixed-use developments including rental housing will be considered, provided they meet high standards for noise mitigation. Where there are existing SROs, the intent is to replace these units with new social housing, generally at off-site locations. New residential uses are otherwise generally not permitted to reduce the potential conflicts of the entertainment district’s flexibility to become a lively destination, given that such areas are known for excess noise and light.

To support such large mixed-use developments, effectively improving their financial viability and the plan’s outcomes of increased foot traffic through commercial density, the City will increase the allowable building heights along the strip to a range of between 200 ft. and 400 ft., with the tallest buildings located in the general area between West Georgia and Robson streets — near the Canada Line’s Vancouver City Centre Station.

As well, new developments in this area will be encouraged to fully integrate with Vancouver City Centre Station.

Proposed concept for the Granville Strip master plan, February 2025. (City of Vancouver)

To enable significantly increased building density opportunities through added height, protected mountain View Cone 12 emanating from the middle of Granville Street Bridge’s east pedestrian path will be removed. This would be replaced at a later date by a new view cone emanating from the future Central Waterfront Plan around Waterfront Station.

“An increase in height on larger sites in this area could help define the centre of the city skyline, while also helping to achieve other City objectives for Granville Street and the downtown area through redevelopment,” reads the City staff report.

Capital costs of up to about $140 million for the City

City staff estimate the total capital costs incurred by the municipal government to fund public realm upgrades, bus public transit changes, and cultural infrastructure will be between about $90 million and $140 million in 2025 dollars. This will be covered by a mix of developer contributions, City resources, and potential support from the provincial and federal governments and other partners.

However, City staff caution that the implementation will depend on economic conditions and evolving provincial rules around development charges. Only a portion of the plan may be achievable with current resources, and prioritization of projects will be required.

The capital costs include between $20 million and $30 million for the seasonal pilot projects of temporarily rerouting the buses and making the initial bus priority measures and public realm improvements. The permanent changes, which includes the investments for Howe and Seymour streets, over the longer term would cost up to an additional $40 million.

For comparison, Granville Street’s last major transformation — aimed at creating a more pedestrian-friendly public space ahead of the 2010 Winter Olympics — cost $18 million in 2009 dollars, which is equivalent to approximately $25 million in 2025 dollars when adjusted for inflation. This previous project spanned the entire length of Granville Street in downtown Vancouver, between the bridge entrance and West Cordova Street/Waterfront Station. It also coincided with the Canada Line’s construction for Waterfront Station and Vancouver City Centre Station.

granville street downtown vancouver entertainment district

Granville Street in downtown Vancouver looking south from West Georgia Street. (City of Vancouver)

The new plan calls for an additional $44 million for new major performance/exhibition spaces, and improvements to existing cultural heritage spaces and uses, including the City-owned Orpheum Theatre.

Another notable cost component is $16 million to support off-site and on-site redevelopment of existing City-owned below-market housing properties on the street, including the near-term replacement of the 41-unit Gresham Hotel. Overall, this funding will be used to help support the off-site replacement of 218 units of City-owned non-market housing, 280 units of non-profit and provincially-owned non-market housing, and 380 units of privately-owned SROs.

The provincial government’s non-market housing presence along the Granville Strip has expanded significantly in recent years, particularly following its pandemic-time acquisition of properties such as the Howard Johnson and Hostelling International Vancouver Central for use as permanent supportive housing. However, some local residents and businesses have attributed a rise in crime and public disorder in the area to these sites, fuelling ongoing debate over their impact on the neighbourhood and residential uses within an entertainment district.

This planning process for the Granville Street Plan first began in early 2023, after City Council endorsed the exercise, which was triggered by Bonnis Properties’ previous 800 Granville Street redevelopment proposal concept.

The developer’s proposal has since been revised from an office-primary project to a rental housing-primary project, with the retail, restaurant, and entertainment uses further expanded. The previous office-primary project’s horizontal bulky form spanning the length of the city block is now replaced by two comparatively slender towers reaching up to 43 storeys, rising above a base podium with hotel, office, retail, restaurant, and entertainment uses, including the full preservation of the Commodore Ballroom and Commodore Bowling & Billiards.

The revised 800 Granville Street project is seen as a catalyst proposal to kickstart the revitalization of the GED.

800-876 Granville Street Vancouver revision bonnis march 2025 design

March 2025 revised concept of the 800-876 Granville Street redevelopment in downtown Vancouver. (Perkins&Will/Bonnis Properties)

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